Dear Sweet, Young, Beautiful Girl:
I know it took a lot of courage to look me in the eye this morning and smile. I’ve been on your side, hiding behind a microbiology text book, hoping no will notice the acne on my face, my crooked, chipped teeth, my hair that looks like a mistake of nature, my legs that are too thin for some and too big for others. I know the heavy weight of wanting to hide from the world because maybe you don’t look like what a lot of your friends look like, or, that you don’t look anything like what you see the “pretty people” look in magazines, television and movies. I know how cruel kids can be, and how they can take the smallest thing about you and make you feel like it’s the ONLY thing about you that anyone notices. I just hope at the end of the night, you have a sweet mom or dad who wraps their arms around you and tells you you’re the most beautiful thing in the world, even if you don’t believe them.
If I could put one quiet thought in your mind, it would be this: whatever you feel about how you look, however much hurt that floods your heart every day because of it, no matter how sad you get about it sometimes, or angry or frustrated, you’ll grow up, you’ll grow out of that skin that clings to you tightly right now and you’ll be able to walk into your 25 th high school reunion, look at the girls in the eye that were so nasty to you in gym class and say, “I cured cancer, ladies. What did you do?”